Trying Too Hard
by Agents of the TARDIS
Summary: Alexis tries to hide her whole life from her dad, but what will happen when she can't go on? Who will she tell? This is set before Castle and Beckett got together. This is my first Castle fic and my first fic ever so please read and review!
1. Prologue

**Hey everyone, this is my first castle fic and my first fic EVER so I hope you enjoy. I like reading angst/hurt/comfort stories so I thought I might give it a go. Please read and review. It would be great if you could give me some feedback as I would love to improve. This first chapter is just setting the scene so it won't be to long and will be all about Alexis. I'll stop ranting now. I hope you enjoy!  
I do not own Castle or any of its characters :(**

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Prologue

She looks at her watch. 'How could it be 2:30 already?', she thinks as she put her pen down and goes to brush her teeth, hoping her dad won't here her.

Alexis Castle had just been set free from school, but was still working hard. She didn't want to lose all she had learnt so far as it was all truly fascinating to her. She was always working on every aspect of knowledge she could cram into her head. She missed learning and going to school every day as she enjoyed every subject and would have loved to stay at school all year.

There was one thing she didn't like about school. The people. The teachers were alright, always smiling at her, always happy with her test results and her behavior in class. But it was her peers who she didn't like. She didn't mind them, they just didn't like her. She didn't have many friends. Of course her dad didn't know that, he still thought that she was friends with people from two years ago. She couldn't blame him though, she realizes as she climbs into bed. She didn't tell him much about her everyday life, his life was so interesting she'd never even bother to tell him about her day. He was off with Beckett, fighting crimes and catching killers. After all of his amazing stories, her day seemed dull and unimportant.

She wasn't sure how long it was going to be until her dad, or any of his team even, finally found about her lack of friends and how hard she actually worked. Why would they want to know? Why would they care? She wasn't sure whether it would matter to them at all. She carried on thinking, staring at her Doctor Who TARDIS replica her dad had got her last year for Christmas, sitting on her enormous bookshelf across the room. Why couldn't the Doctor just take her away, into the TARDIS? She would learn so much from being able to go back in time.

It wasn't until around 5 that she finally fell asleep, dreaming of the Doctor's adventures through time and space, oblivious to the fact that she had left the light on in the bathroom and the tap was still dripping slowly from down the hall. She was so exhausted from all her late nights studying and the activities she did at school, though she would never admit it.

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**Thanks so much for reading, hopefully will update soon, please review! xx**


	2. Chapter 1

**hi, sorry I haven't uploaded this sooner, I've been a bit busy... Hopefully I am planning to update tomorrow and after that it will most likely be every week depending on how much time I have. Thankyou to everyone who has read this story, I really appreciate it!**

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Chapter 1

Her alarm clock sounded loudly and she jumped out of bed, surprised by the sudden noise filling her ears. She quickly turned it off and hurried to her wardrobe to get dressed. She was down stairs and eating her breakfast by seven o'clock. It was part of her daily routine. She always had the same thing for breakfast, some fruit and a piece of toast with avocado. Sometimes, if her dad got up before her, he would make her pancakes or some weird, new meal that she would often have to through out as it wouldn't be healthy for her to eat it. While she ate her breakfast, she often read or worked through some questions she had gotten for homework.

As she slowly turned the well-worn pages of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (she had read it over 15 times), she heard a loud bang and turned sharply, putting her book down on the bench along with her piece of toast. She heard someone cursing loudly as she walked over to her dad's office and swung the door open wide. She laughed as she saw her dad sprawled on the ground with his laptop laying next to him.

"I see you have been working very hard on this next novel?" She smirked as she went to help him of the ground and grabbed his laptop of the ground. As soon as Rick was on his feet, he grabbed the laptop of her, quickly closed it and put it on his desk. "I was doing research!" He protested. "I don't think Call of Duty is research, considering you are supposed to be researching about detective Beckett and the NYPD." She stated, staring at him, annoyed with his lack of productivity on his latest novel. Rick picked up his desk chair and sat down. Wheeling it towards his desk, he picked up his phone, checked it and shoved it in his pocket in annoyance. "No new cases, huh?" She asked as she followed him out to the kitchen. He grabbed an apple from the bench, sat on the bar stool closest to him and nodded as he took a bite.

Alexis sighed and sat down next to him. Her dad had been miserable the whole week because he hadn't had a new case. He was supposed to be writing his new novel, but having real cases to solve really got him motivated to write. He had never been very productive with writing his novels, he enjoyed writing them of course but he was never motivated enough to finish them and often didn't like where they were going, so he would change the whole thing a week before it was due.

"So, no more school?" He asked. She nodded, slowly, looking at him questionably, not sure where the conversation was going. "What are you gonna do?" She thought for a moment, and then replied with "Well, I'm going to head down to the library soon, and then I'll probably come back her and do some wor-" "What?!" Rick was shocked. "You're gonna do work on your break? That is so like you, but no, this time you are not work when your supposed to be relaxing. Ok, here's the deal, next case I have, you can come with me and after that case is finished, we are going to come back here and have a Doctor Who marathon, right?" She was about to argue, but knew there was no point, so she just nodded.

As soon as Rick had gone to get some juice from the fridge, his phone began vibrating loudly on the bench. He ran over, skidding on the floor and picked it up. Alexis watched as he tried very hard to stay composed before finally hanging up and yelling "We have a case!"

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**next chapter hopefully up tomorrow, please review! **


	3. Chapter 2

**Hi everyone, I'm so sorry, I know I said I would update a while ago but I've just got back to school. From now on, my updates will most likely be every week I'm hoping. Thankyou so much for the reviews, follows and favorites for this story, I really appreciate it.**

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Chapter 2

"Did you even ask Beckett if I'm allowed to come with you?" Alexis asked her dad as they walked down the crowded side walk together. She wasn't completely sure wether her father should be bringing her along to a crime scene. "No.." He said slowly and then added "she won't mind though, I'll say its part of your work experience thing you have to do for school." "But I already did that." She pointed out as they rounded the corner. "Remember, I helped

out at the precinct, I didn't even get to see a crime scene then." " Ah, but his time, your not doing work experience with the NYPD, your doing it with me!" Alexis laughed at that. "She is not going to believe one word of that, you realize?"

They had stopped in front of the yellow crime scene tape that blocked their path and Rick turned to look at his daughter. "Alexis, you worry to much" he said, grabbing her shoulders and looking her straight in the eyes. "Everything will be fine, don't worry, Beckett won't mind, she likes you." He turned back to the tape and lifted it up and over his head, holding it up for Alexis to walk under and headed towards the crime scene.

As they walked towards victim, Lanie Parish looked up from inspecting the body. "Castle! Nice to see you again. Alexis, what a surprise! What brings you here?" Alexis smiled and was about to reply when Rick butted in. "She's doing an extra work experience thing for school, with me!" Alexis could tell that Lanie was clearly not fooled by her father's plan as she turned around to face him and glared at him. "That is clearly not why she is here, I can tell." Rick looked towards Alexis sheepishly and she gave him one of her I-told-you-so looks back. "I personally don't mind that Alexis is here, as long as you don't mind the body. But Kate is not going to like you bring your teenage daughter to a crime scene with potential murder suspects in the area, and she is going to see right through your lie, that's her job. What are you going to tell her?" "Where is Beckett?" Rick asked curiously. Alexis could tell he was trying to avoid Lanie's question. He always did that when he couldn't think of a clever remark to shoot back. Lanie was clearly used to this behavior from him and just rolled her eyes. "She's over by the fence questioning potential witnesses with Ryan and Esposito, she was waiting for you to get here." She said as she pointing towards a long white picket fence. As Rick started to walk towards them, Alexis began to follow but felt and arm grab her and turn her around again. "Best to stay here until your dad has sorted things out." Lanie told her softly.

Rick headed towards the fence crowded with people, trying to find any sign of his partner. As he walked along, he caught sight of her questioning a young man and hurried over. "Thankyou for your time sir." She said, and the man nodded. As she turned around Rick briskly walked towards her. As she caught sight of him, she rolled her eyes and walked to wards him. "Took your time." She said. He didn't reply and just sipped slowly at his coffee. "What's up? You always have a clever comeback." Beckett asked concerned. She may not show it all the time, but she really did care for the writer. "Well I may have brought Alexis to the crime scene and you may kill me right here for doing that." He said so quickly Beckett only just caught it, and she didn't look impressed. "What?! Why would you do that Castle, she's a teenager it's dangerous to be around this sort of thing, I thought you, her father of all people would have enough brains to-" "I know, I know, just hear me out please." He said, cutting her off. "Their better be a good reason." She said impatiently. "Alexis has been acting, differently. I don't really know because every time I ask her about her day, she just says it was good and goes and does homework. She never expands on it. She is constantly doing work and she hasn't been catching up with her friends lately or doing anything but work. I don't know what it is but she isn't herself. I thought this might take her mind of things and I might be able to see what's wrong."

Kate was honestly completely taken aback by what Castle had said. He never usually came to her with his problems, let alone problems about his daughter. It must be pretty serious and he must be very worried to actually tell her this. "It's ok Castle, she can come, as long as she isn't in danger which I'm sure you'll agree on. Come on, we better get back to Lanie." An they headed back towards the victim, Rick couldn't believe that Beckett had let Alexis stay. He was very concerned about his daughter, as she was usually so bubbly and wouldn't stop talking about her day.

"So, what do we have?" Beckett asked Lanie, leaning over the body to take a closer look. Lanie bent down next the victim and began pointing out important information to her co-workers. "Victim is female around 23 years old. Cause of death, blunt force trauma to the skull. I'm thinking time of death around 5:40 this morning."

Alexis looked down at the woman lying in front of her. She was an average height for her age, quite thin and had a beautiful dark complexion. Her curly auburn hair hung loosely around her shoulders and she had pretty hazel eyes.

While she had been thinking, Lanie had finished telling Beckett about the victim. "Thanks Lanie. Ryan and Espo are just finishing of with the interviews, we'll meet them back at the precinct." As she turned and walked Alexis hurried up to her. "Hi, um Detective Beckett, is it ah, ok if I'm here?" She asked tentatively. "Yes that's fine Alexis. I talked to your dad about it, just make sure you listen to the instructions my team give you and you should be fine." Kate smiled at the teenager and continued walking.

Alexis was confused as to why Detective Beckett was completely fine with her being around while a murder investigation was going on. She wasn't sure how her dad had managed to convince her that she could stay, but she didn't want to ask, as her dad had helped out with a lot of cases, and she didn't want to get in the way of the investigation. On the drive back to the precinct, she decide that throughout the entire investigation, she would try not to get in the way of the other detectives and not make their job any harder than it already is.

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**Thanks for reading, please review and tell me what you think! **


	4. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone, I am truly sorry this had taken so long. Just wanting to let you know right now I will never abandon this, sometimes it might take me a while to update but I'm about to go on holidays so hopefully I'll be able to update more often. Thanks for those of you who have read and reviewed and thanks for staying by me! Enjoy!**

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The precinct was bustling with people when the elevator slowly opened and allowed them to all along to Beckett's board. Ryan and Esposito had just finished putting evidence on the board and turned to face them. "We've made a timeline and found who our victim is." Ryan stated as he pulled a photo from a stack of files and stuck it on the board. "Name's Sasha Pierce, 23 years old. She lived alone in the house next door to where she was murdered. No living family. She owned an online fashion company called Tenuso. It's a pretty new business, only started last year." Castle became quite curious at this. "How could she afford a house like that?" He said, pointing towards the large house in one of the landscape shots on the board. "Ryan, go through her bank details and try and find the real estate company who sold the house. Espo, find out a bit about Sasha and see wether she had anyone who would have helped her buy the house."

As Ryan and Esposito walked of towards their desks, Castle turned to Beckett. "Did anyone have any information for you at the crime scene? "Most of the people their were passers by who came to see what the fuss was about. However there was a young man, Sam Carter, who new a bit. He was her neighbor and said she kept to herself, and he never noticed anything suspicious." Beckett walked over to her desk and sat down, placing her now cold cup of coffee on her cluttered desk. "But you don't believe that, do you?" Castle asked, curiously. "It's odd, don't you think, that a young, beautiful women who has a lovely house doesn't go out much and keeps to herself? How can she not beh in contact with anyone?" Beckett looked puzzled. "When Ryan and Esposito are done, I'll get them have a look at her phone." Beckett turned towards the board, examining every detail, as if she was trying to memorize it.

Castle was staring into space, thinking if there was anything he could get from his mystery writer brain as to why she lived in such a nice place. He was so out of it he didn't notice Alexis, who, as she had promised to Detective Beckett, had not gotten in the way with the investigation so far, snuck out of the bullpen and down a corridor. She had no idea where she was heading, she just didn't want to get in the way. 'I'm always in the way' she thought as she turned left into an empty store cupboard. 'No one's going to notice that I'm in here, I'll just keep out of the way until dad lets me go home and doesn't bother me again. Why did he even care. I've been acting like this for ages and he only noticed now?' Alexis looked at her watch. She'd been in the cupboard for over 15 minutes and her dad hadn't even noticed. She blinked away the tears she felt in her eyes. It's not like he didn't care about her, She was his daughter after all, but now he helped the police and was having the time of his life, while she was doing work and trying to get through tough times by herself, with no support. But, she realized, even if her dad had asked her what was wrong, she wouldn't have told him. It would have been nice of him to bother though.

Back in the bullpen, Ryan had been trying to look through Sasha's bank details but was extremely confused with the results. "Hey Beckett, come here a sec." At the sound of his voice, Beckett looked up from her desk and headed over, with Castle flowing close behind her. "What did you find?" She asked, leaning forward to see what was on his screen. "Well, that's the thing. I found nothing. Not a single trace of having a credit card, bank account, this girl is practically a ghost." "Well" Esposito said as headed towards them with a file in his hand, "Maybe that's because she is." He placed the file on Ryan's desk and they all looked in astonishment at the piece of paper before them.

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**Thanks once again to all of you staying by this! It really means a lot**

**hope to update soon! I promise!**


	5. Chapter 4

**Hey guys, so sorry it's taking me so long to update this, I will try to be quicker. In the meantime, here's the next chapter, I hope you enjoy and I will try and be quicker to update next time!**

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Half an hour later in the store cupboard, Alexis was wondering wether her father cared enough to come and find her. She began looking around the cupboard, as she didn't want to leave just yet. She thought she'd wait until about an hour had passed, so she could just pretend she had been exploring. She could technically leave now, but she wasn't prepared to face her father yet.

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"This doesn't make sense." Beckett said, looking down at the papers covering Ryan's desk. "She's been dead for ten years!?" Ryan exclaimed. "This is amazing!" Castle said excitedly. Beckett rolled her eyes at his comment. Typical Castle. "What I don't understand, is how no one new her. She lived here. Surely someone would have heard her name or at least seen her and realized it was her." Esposito said matter-of-factly. As the boys continued to discuss how impossible it was, Beckett had been focusing on one piece of paper for the past 5 minutes. She was scanning it frantically with a frown on her face, occasionally looking up at their murder board for extra information. "Hey guys, look at this." Beckett said, holding the piece of paper out so her colleagues could see it as they moved to crowd around her. "It says here that she was an absolute genius, straight A's, the works, and she was involved in every club she could be in. In the last week people saw her, she was different. She didn't work in class, made noise, basically disrupted everything. Then she was gone."

"Where did she go to school?" Ryan asked. "Marlowe Prep." Beckett replied. Castle looked up at Beckett's comment and turned towards her with a questioning look on his face. "Marlowe Prep? That's where Alexis goes. Maybe we should ask h- hang on, where is Alexis?" Castle looked around, just realizing his daughter was no where to be seen. "Where did she go?" Castle asked. Beckett could see the worry in his eyes. "She's probably just gone for a look around the office." She reassuringly replied.

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Alexis was getting bored in the store room, and after she had calmed herself down, wiping the now dry tears from her face, she stood up slowly, opened the creaky door, and head out into the busy precinct. As she headed towards the bullpen, she was surprised to see her dad running up to her. "Where have you been? I've been worried about you!" Castle said and pulled his daughter into a tight hug. "Oh, you know, just looking around." Alexis answered half-heartedly as Castle lead her back over to where Beckett, Esposito and Ryan sat.

"Alexis!" Beckett greeted her as they entered the bullpen. "I was wondering if you could help us out. Have you ever heard of a Sasha Pierce at your school?" Beckett asked. "No, I've never heard of her." Alexis replied, confused. "Why?" Castle began to explain to Alexis what they had found out while she was gone. Alexis was excited that she might actually be needed in her father's work. "Well, why don't you talk to one of he teachers at school" if she was such a good student, surely someone remembers her." She suggested to her dad. "Great idea!" Castle exclaimed, kissing his daughter on the head and turning to the others. "On here it says she excelled in math, so why don't we talk to... Mrs. Walters?" Ryan suggested, showing them all the piece of paper.

"That's a good idea." Beckett said, reaching for her blaring phone to answer. "Beckett. Hi Lanie. Ok, I'll send the boys down." Beckett ended the phone and turned to the group. "Ryan, Espo, Lanie's found something and I want you to go and check it out." They nodded and headed out of the bullpen. "Beckett grabbed her jacket off her chair and headed out herself, with Castle and Alexis following close behind. "Let's go talk to Mrs. Walters."

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**Thanks to everyone who is still reading this and sticking with it even with my lack of updates. Please review, I'd really love your opinions!**


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